Cedric Paquette’s late goal buries Blackhawks, gives Lightning 2-1 series lead
The Tampa Bay Lightning have held an answer to all the tests the Chicago Blackhawks have thrown their way in the Stanley Cup Final.
Most goals have been met with a response. Chicago’s championship mettle has been countered by Tampa’s own steely-like persona.
The Lightning quickly overcame a Chicago third period lead and poured it on to pick up a 3-2 Game 3 win at United Center.
The victory put Tampa up 2-1 in their best-of-7 series with the Blackhawks. Game 4 is Wednesday evening at United Center.
Tampa forward Cedric Paquette fired the game-winner with 3:11 left in the third period, deflecting a pass by defenseman Victor Hedman.
Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop started after some coy mind games by Tampa as to who would play in the contest. He exited Game 2 in the third period, re-entered and left again. No explanation was given why.
“We’re not going to put anybody in a game that is going to be in harm’s way of hurting himself,” Tampa coach Jon Cooper said. “We talked long and hard if he could play tonight. There wasn’t a doubt in his eyes. You can read when guys are sitting there saying, ‘Coach, I’ll go for you’. Or you can say, give me the net. That kid said, give me the net. I knew we were going to be okay.”
The third period saw two quick goals by both teams. At the 4:14 mark of the frame, Brandon Saad put the game at 2-1 in favor of Chicago. Then 13 seconds later the Lightning responded when Ondrej Palat knotted it at 2-2.
“It’s a great play, a great goal,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “All of a sudden you get momentum. Two games we had the lead, but short-lived both times. Two tough losses in a row.”
Oh, The Triplets — You can’t keep them down for too long.
The second period was tilted toward Tampa with the shots on goal at 17-7 in favor of the Lightning.
In that frame, Chicago goaltender Corey Crawford stopped a Nikita Kucherov breakaway and a protracted Tampa 5-on-3 that lasted 1:26.
Chicago outshot Tampa 19-7 in the first period.
At the 14:22 mark of the first period Brad Richards fired a shot that Bishop just flubbed with his glove. It was one of those ‘sure he’d love to have that one back’ type plays. Still, it was the only mis-step for Bishop, who stopped 36 of 38 Chicago shots on goal.
“I felt good. The first period, probably a few too many rebounds there. As the game went on, the guys did a great job of clearing those out,” Bishop said. “As the game went on, I felt better, more comfortable. Some big blocked shots there at the end. Just a good team win all around. Obviously probably wasn’t our best first, but I thought we got better as the game went on.”
Lightning forward Ryan Callahan opened the scoring 5:09 into the game after pumping a blast past Crawford:
Callahan was led perfectly by a Hedman pass and fired the puck over Crawford’s glove.
Hedman was absolutely electric in the contest, notching two assists in over 26 minutes of action. His last two games he has four points and is a plus-2 for Tampa.
“Victor Hedman, what he’s doing, I mean, this is clearly his coming-out party,” Cooper said. “He sets that one up and then makes a big-time play on the winner.”
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